Several soft and hard tonneau pickup truck covers are available on the market today. Soft covers are subject to cuts and tears, difficult to remove and install, exhibit undesirable contraction and expansion with temperature variations, and require clumsy ribs across the bed to support the cover. Certain hard, one-piece covers can only be opened from a tailgate end of the cover, which limits the height of the objects that can be transported. Alternatively, other hard, one piece, covers have to be removed and stored when transporting large objects.
It is desirable to produce a protective cover that provides fast and easy, single-person installation and removal, wherein the protective cover is stow-able without consuming valuable cargo space during transportation.